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Le Bourget - Philippine Airlines has agreed to buy seven more Bombardier Q400NG
aircraft from Canadian plane maker Bombardier, bringing its total order to 12, including the five initially
ordered in December 2016.

The option purchase rights was announced Monday at the Paris Air Show, with the deal valued at US$235 million.

The original order for five
firm Q400 with purchase rights for an additional seven was previously
announced on December 8, 2016 and will start monthly delivery from July next month. Another five delivery will be handed over from March 2018, with the remainder arriving in the latter part of 2019.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) has relaunched its business class service on flights to Dubai (RP-C8760) in a bid to improve product services to the Gulf region Thursday.

PAL has started flying its 368-seater bi-class A330-300 plane to the gulf region after launching new tri-class product to Hawaii yesterday.

PAL senior assistant vice president and regional manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa Genaro Velasquez said they booked 50% of the 18 business class seats on average while the airline also registered 50 per cent jump in passenger traffic to the UAE in the three months to the end of June.

Velasquez said that Doha, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam will also have business-class services in the next five months as another A330 is rolled out in July, August, September, October and November.

The airline took over the Manila to Dubai route from its low-cost subsidiary, PAL Express, in 2014 using a monoclass 402 seater A330-300 aircraft.

PAL began its service to the Middle East since 1979 through hopping flights in Bahrain, followed by Dahran in Saudi Arabia. It first flew to Dubai in 1982.

16 June 2017

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) is pushing back delivery of its Airbus A321 NEO (new engine option) orders to January next year due to engine supply issue with Pratt and Whitney's PW1100G-JM geared-turbofan that will be used for the aircraft.

PAL ordered 21 A321 NEOs, which was supposed to begin delivery by November 2017 says PAL President Jaime J. Bautista.

“Our first aircraft delivery of the NEO will be January 2018 from November this year, so it’s three months delayed,” he said.

PW1100G-JM is having initial operational teething troubles which involved failures of some engines’ number three bearings, according to Airbus.

Pratt & Whitney is trying to produce enough modified PW1100G-JMs to meet both the demand for initial installation on new-delivery A320neos planes and replace existing in-service engines which have to be swapped after failures were reported to conform to upgraded specifications.

According to Bautista, unlike the current A321 the NEO aircraft is embedded with backseat IFE's comprising business, premium economy and economy class seats meant for regional destinations and will replace old A320s and A321s flying regional routes.

The new plane is expected also to fly new international points from the Philippines to be announce next year, particularly India and two other key cities in Australia..

Mr. Bautista said PAL is however on target with the delivery of its Q400NG turboprops from Bombardier Commercial Aircraft starting July until November for its Cebu hub, and two more Boeing 777-300ER in December and January 2018 for North America and European destinations, followed by first A350 delivery in June of 2018 from SMBC Aviation Capital for direct flights to New York.

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines will reveal its newest seat product via A330-300 (RP-C8784) plane to Honolulu beginning June 15 to be followed by Melbourne and Shanghai in July, Sydney in August, Hong Kong in September, Narita in October, and Haneda and Osaka in November, as the airline begin its journey towards five star status. Business Class

A U.S. P3 Orion surveillance plane flies over Marawi City as Philippine Air Force helicopters and bombers continue air strikes on Friday, June 9, 2017.

But contrary to the media reports, it was not the first time that Americans presence was made manifest, through the P-3 Orion, as the mainstream media would like people to believe. The technical assistance was there since 2003.

In fact the US air assets were there all the time from Zamboanga siege to battles in Basilan and Jolo hovering above Abu Sayaff's head up to this time. This Orion plane even regularly lands in Zamboanga's Edwin Andrews Air Base (EAAB) at night beyond the prying eyes of the media.

The Philippine military would not have told it as it is, including the presence of the UAV predator drone that is kept at the EAAB hangar. It's neither confirmed nor denied. You can however take a look at it without bringing a camera.

PAF operated UAV's are generally treated confidential but the Insitu ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS) was declassified together with other assets because they were recently used. The last time they were used was five years ago.

These UAS equipment's however the PAF would gladly disclosed. The Israeli made ones are however classified.

These combat utility helicopter pilots from the 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing also known as THE BEEHIVE of the Philippine Air Force are flying not just to provide helicopter lift operation for our ground troopers. With the help of their Legendary flying machine, the LEGENDARY HUEY, these combat utility helicopter Huey pilots also served as the flying delivery boys on the battlefield.

A simple gesture of humor can give high morale to our brave warriors fighting for our flag and country. But, delivering something they don't have on the battlefield can be just a simple way of thoughts to others but for those who are fighting, it's something more than a priceless gift.

These Huey pilots flying the Legendary Huey are the army and marines best friends in the Armed Forces... They are the horse and hope of these army and marine warriors. The 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing is tasked with conducting Heli-lift operations in support of ground units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines

The Huey pilots fly the package while Huey door gunners are the trigger man of our Huey pilots. The Beehives of the Philippine Air Force are always there for our fighting Army and Marines. Even with the most expensive delivery ever... "When you have a good heart: You help too much. You trust too much. You give too much. You love too much & it always seems you hurt the most."
- Jollibee

Brazil aircraft manufacturer Embraer has won P4.9 billion (US$101 million) contract for the Philippine Air Force (PAF) for six (6) close-air support (CAS) aircraft.

The Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano aircraft is operated by Air Forces of Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Chile, Dominican Republic and Ecuador with a price tag of $15 million. It will replace the U.S.-made Rockwell OV-10 Bronco turboprop aircraft in the CAS and counter-insurgency (COIN) mission role.

The Brazilian aircraft was pitted to Beechcraft AT-6B Texan II Wolverine and Aero Vodochody made Aero L-39 Albatros of the Czech Republic. The Czech company did not submit bid while Beechcraft was subsequently disqualified for failure to comply the technical component of the bid.

PAF technical specifications require offered aircraft with dual tandem seating and a carrying capacity of at least 3,000 lbs with five hard points. The aircraft must also have two .50 caliber guns built in or through pods.

The winning bidder will be required to deliver the six aircraft within 540 calendar days upon the receipt of notice to proceed.

Philippine low cost carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB) has placed an order with aircraft manufacturer Airbus for an additional seven A321CEO planes for delivery from March 2018 for domestic expansion plans from its hub at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The aircraft will replace and upgrade existing A320 services from NAIA to major points across the country and regional destinations next year.

Meanwhile, A320 services is set to be relegated to other hubs of the airline in the country as they will also replace existing ATR 72-600 turboprop flights from Manila going to Cauyan, Legazpi and Virac translating to over 130 percent more capacity.

The freed-up ATR aircraft from these three routes will be transferred to other hubs and used to
service five new interisland routes Cebgo recently announced, namely,
Cebu-Masbate; Cagayan de Oro-Zamboanga; Davao-Dumaguete; Davao-Tacloban;
and Cotabato-Zamboanga as well as other Vis-Min destinations that should be announce soon..

The additional order will be on top of existing 32 Airbus A321NEO planes whose delivery schedule has been pushed back to the fourth quarter of 2018 until 2022 from the original schedule beginning September 2017 until 2021 due to delivery delays to PW1100G-JM-powered A320neo-family jet engines selected to power the aircraft.

The seven Airbus A321CEO plane order have a total value of US$812 million.

Meanwhile, A330-300s will be used to upgrade flight services to Cebu and Davao as well as flights to Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.CEB recently took delivery of the 8th Airbus A330-300; and 5th ATR 72-600, to bring its current fleet to 61.

State airline Qatar Airways will introduce flights to Davao four times a week by summer schedule next year as they secure four more rights to fly Manila airport in an air services negotiation that was concluded Wednesday.

The new route will be flown by Boeing 787-800 plane from Doha.

The new air services agreement (ASA) amends the 2015 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on air services between Manila and Doha granting Qatar Airways 14 flights to Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport with the condition to fly Clark or Cebu.

Qatar fulfilled the 2015 MOU that granted them seven more slots at NAIA by flying initially to Cebu before transferring flight to Clark and now being flown daily on a Boeing 787-800.

The MOU which includes as a condition for Qatar Airways to have flights from Davao within one year from the commencement of the four additional flights to Manila set for introduction by October this year, was signed by DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation Captain Manuel Antonio Tamayo and Abdullah Al Subaey of Qatar.

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Welcome to our blog. The Philippine aviation scene has plenty of surprises in store. We are trying to chronicle the relevant events from orbital satellites to human powered flights and all in between as we possibly could. We are also trying desperately hard to be accurate and factual as far as possible. Humans as we are we do sometimes err. Our apologies for trying to let you know to the best of our knowledge which sometimes fell short. We however value your time reading it and please do contact us for some corrections. Our heartfelt thanks for dropping by.

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